I was excited when I watched the official trailer, especially after reading this from the FAQ:

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Is the official trailer a cinematic creation?

The official trailer available on our website is not a cinematic trailer. In fact, it is an actual gameplay footage. It consists of different camera angles capturing our developers playing the game and it has been edited into a trailer format. We wanted to visually capture the amazing quality of TERA as accurately as possible.

But then I saw this underneath:

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Who is Bluehole Studio?

Bluehole Studio is an industry leader in game development, comprised of the most renowned game developers that brought you Lineage 2. Bluehole Studio was established in 2007 and has been developing TERA since then. Bluehole Interactive is our US-based office, spear-heading the business in North America. Please visit our site www.bluehole.net/eng for more information.

It will take a lot for me to even consider playing something by the same people that made the grind and botfest that was Lineage 2. Beyond that, never heard of this game at all.

EDIT: Make sure at least you hit the Home button on the site - you can look at their player models in your browser. Quite impressive.

« Last Edit: October 08, 2009, 12:16:24 AM by Destructor »

Logged

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

I'll keep an open mind, esp. if there's an open beta, but I agree with Destructor, "From the Makers of Lineage 2!" has the effect of making me want to run screaming in the opposite direction, waving my arms frantically and yelling, "RUN!!!! SAVE YOURSELVES!!!!"

In Asia though (where Lineage was a WoW-like monster in subscriber base, before WoW took a lot of its market share), I'm sure it gets folks excited.

This came out of nowhere to me. Specially after the announcement that some ex-Blizzard and ex-Arenanet veterans are supporting it for western markets or something like that.

The visuals are awesome but what got me really curious was the combat mechanics. It seems it is not using auto-attacks and it looks like it plays more like a regular console action game. Just color me interested for now.

That's correct. In fact, it is even supposed to support game pads. I'd like to seesome co-op gameplay. The solo play I've seen seems to show a limited number of skills and I've seen it said there are no wow-like skill trees, so I'd like to get a sense of where the depth comes from. The third closed beta just started in Korea, so keep an eye out for new video.

The new CBT has opened up a larger portion of the world and made more skills available. It looks pretty good. I like the look of the mystic class they have a healing ability that drops heal orbs on the ground that can be picked up by party members...kind of nice). And while I don't usually play tanks, the warrior class seems like an interesting take on one (closest equivalent would be like a super reflexes tank in coh). They dual wield and soak damage by dodging it. The classes seemed kind of generic before, but they had so few skills we had seen. I think they're starting to take shape more now.0 Archers have a Rez style multi-shot ability that seems like it might be fun to use.

Combat in TERA relies heavily on skill and watching your surroundings: direction, placement, timing, where you're facing, where you're standing, what the monsters are doing.

For example, enemies will often point at their intended target before they engage, or wind up before unleashing a powerful attack, giving you a chance to prepare. Even healing can rely on the target player keeping an eye on things. The Healer will throw a large healing circle on the ground, and it's up to the player to move and remain inside that glowing circle to receive heals.

Communication between players helps this quite a bit. If the healer calls out that he's going to throw out a heal, for example, the recipient will hopefully make an effort to jump and run around a bit less, giving the healer an easier target.

As we progressed through the game, we began experimenting with more complicated attacks. The number keys are bound to more powerful attacks, and can be added to the main left-click attack and the class-based right-click attack for some devastating combos. Knockdowns, stuns, and AoE attacks all made the group much stronger....ERA is a game that has sprouted from a Korean port into something definitely worth watching. It's a unique world with a few unique races and the combat is literally a blast to play. Once we get to see more about the game and what it offers to players beyond combat and lore, it should have a bright future among the strong crop of upcoming games.

I joked with the devs at the demo station about me hiding in the corner of the room, playing the game for the rest of the day. At GDC all I wanted to do was go back and play the game every chance I got. When a game can do that, they've already won.

I'd ignored this but I'm going to start paying attention now. *

* NOTE: If all its quests are "Kill 25, Kill 50, Kill 200, Kill 5,000," I will take all this back. :icon_razz

The overwhelming majority of players felt that levels 1 to 11 were well-balanced and provided a good introduction to TERA and its lore. However, feedback on levels 12 and onward was a lot more diverse. Some liked the pacing at those levels while others felt it needed improvement. We agree that thereís room to improve in this area and plan to add new quests in more centralized hubs.

Feedback on the game's flow was clear: playing through the Island of Dawn was a finely crafted experience, while adventuring beyond level 11 and the first major city required self-propelled exploration. Quests during the first 11 levels were easy to find and rewarding to complete. The feedback on later quest chains, however, showed that our testers sought better flow and rewards that scaled to match the increased difficulty levels. Participants agreed that quests were a viable method of leveling, and they would like even more dynamic and exciting quests. Some testers also reported that they were able to level well simply by killing monsters instead of accepting quests.

We want to make questing the optimal method of leveling. To that end, we're developing more than 1,000 quests and four times as many quest archetypes as were in FGT2. Additionally, we are evaluating and improving the geographic distribution of quests to ensure that the rewards scale to match the required level.

I have a bad feeling about 1,000 quests cause I don't think MMO devs can think of that many unless about 900 are "Go, Kill Stuff, and Return to Me."

Maybe the secret to MMO success is to set the level cap at 10 or 20. Think of AoC if it just ended with Tortage and there was nothing else. It would be the greatest, shortest MMO ever!

An E3 Tera walkthrough:http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-t-e-r-a/700828The lead writer explains combat is crosshair-based, rather than "tab targeting." And you can't attack something unless you're facing it. There's collision detection (like City of Heroes) so character models don't pass through each other. I imagine they'll have some gimmick to avoid people getting stuck in doorways together and the like.

I was hoping to see more about the team-tactics like the shield "turtling" (for lack of a better word) but it seems like most of the E3 demos were solo play.

One thing I like is that there seems to be an emphasis on the ability to tackle large numbers of targets on your own. And I think I'd like a class (Slayer) that's really focused on using 2-hand great swords of Enormous Size. http://www.tera-online.com/about_tera/classes/slayer.php

I think though they might want to work on the character "grunt" sound. He sounds like he's using the bathroom, and that might get esp. annoying it it's constantly triggered in combat without some "grunt" variation. ================Official site also did a sort of "Twitter transcript" of Q&A snippets conducted via Twitter at E3:http://www.tera-online.com/news/news_view.php?seq=256&cpage=1

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@DannyLippman: In the instances, is there a chance puzzles/riddles may be involved?Brian Knox: Puzzles within our quest system will be available all throughout the world. More variety in quests was a huge ask from our last test

@ADmeister7: In the 10TonHammer podcast, Sam and Matt indicated class restrictions by race, was this true or false?Brian Knox: Nothing is final, we are working on the balance right now. What you have seen in the tests is likely to change.

@BigNasty_TERA: Will there be a good amount of content at end game for both PvE players and PvP?Brian Knox: We will have PVP and PVE server sets. We have some epic PVE encounters and a new feature in battlegrounds that is yet to be revealed

@Versivus: brian, are you going to stay with Tera online even after release? I enjoyed your work with aion and hope you stay with Tera.Brian Knox: I have helped build the team here at En Masse and am loving working with Bluehole. #TERA rocks and I can't wait to keep working on it.===============And maybe more importantly...

@Daniellynet: WIll you make expansions for the game that will cost, or will you make regular small patches? Brian Knox: We plan to continuously update the game with much of the added content being free to subscribers.

@Melkren: What would you say to the people that snub this game off as another grindy Korean MMO? Brian Knox: We have the green light from Bluehole to create the right leveling curve for the western audience. This is a huge priority for me personally

The amount of coordination and control needed in the game is unlike anything weíve previously seen in an MMOG. ...The group gameplay emphasizes teamwork, which is rewarding, but it could potentially become frustrating to players who have a streak of bad luck and end up with groups that donít work well together. In some games a disjointed group may be frustrating, but often you can flub your way through the content. Iím not sure if that will be possible with TERA. If that turns out to be the case it could become too frustrating for many players to even bother grouping, leaving them out of the most rich aspect of the game weíve seen so far.

On the other hand, if you have friends who can carry their own, or make some new friends with skilful alert gamers, youíll have what could quite possibly be the best group MMOGing experience youíve ever encountered.

TERA continues to impress and amaze. It has become one of those rare games that I canít wait to see (and play!) again at the next convention.

So their cautionary note is that with lazy players not paying attention, you might find grouping frustrating (even more so than in more typical-combatwise mmorpgs.

I'm interested in the Slayer, and as luck would have it, the TTH writer got to play as that:

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One of the more fun group combos, at least for me, was a combo that I could do with the Warrior. The Warrior had a stun attack that could knock our enemies down briefly. If successful, as a Slayer, I could then leap into the air and drive my sword down into the fallen beast. The combos took team effort and coordination, but when executed they were extremely amusing, bringing huge grins to myself and the Warrior.

Amira: Around how many quests will the game be launched with?Brian: Weíre saying thereís thousands of quests [I think that means "eventually"-bj]. We want to do what we can to make the game quest driven and story driven so that youíre not having to just kill monsters over and over; we want the quests to lead players along.

Amira: How will mob-tagging work?Brian: Right now itís, you hit it and itís yours. It doesnít matter if someone else does more damage right now, they wonít steal it.

Amira: Is there any specific information you can share on the character talent system?Brian: Weíre working on a way to increase skills with skill points. We havenít really given it a name yet. It was based off of focus group feedback and basically players wanted ways to differentiate there classes and to have different builds, so youíll be able to assign points to skills which will then increase their power. Itíll be a way of defining yourself.

Amira: Can you tell us a little about the alt-points system weíve heard about?Brian: I donít have a ton of detail on it but itís going to be a way that, once you get to max level, the things youíre earning can be kind of handed down to your alts. So itíll allow them to get special weapons or level a little bit faster, kind of, get through the content that maybe you donít want to redo again.

What we really hope is that players can go through the game multiple times, each time taking different paths, that way, making an alt is fun and different every time. But this is a pretty big focus because every class plays so differently, so itíll be a real different experience for every class.

A few other hands-ons from a while back. fwiw, while it's a PC-only title, it's apparently very XBox360 controller-friendly and most of the hands-on impressions pieces were apparently played that way. Although they used headsets at E3, it's not quite clear to me if it has integrated voice chat or if it was a separate system set up for E3 purposes.

[Xbox360 controller] Controls: Left trigger dodges, right trigger/X button is basic attack, B button was a powerful area-of-effect spell, left bumper is knockdown recovery, right bumper casts a charge attack that travels slowly but does high amounts of damage and finally the A button is jump.-----------I saw five classes: Berserker, Warrior, Slayer, Sorcerer and Healer. My hands-on was with the Sorcerer, although there were four other people each playing the other four available classes. Berserker filled the tank role, Warrior seemed like an alternate tank with less defense and slightly more attack, Slayer dealt all-out melee damage with little defense, Sorcerer operated outside the melee with very high attack and low defense and the Healer, well, healed.----------Monster "tells" show up in a variety of ways. Some four-legged beasts will rear up before delivering a small area-of-effect stun attack and others will sheath their weapons for a charge maneuver. Learning enemy tells will most assuredly be an important aspect to becoming a skilled TERA player.

If you're a ranged damage character attacking a monster, it's in your best interest to not attack from the front because you'll be more likely to draw the beast's ire than if you had attacked from a flank or from the rear. Though we eventually got the hang of it, doing battle with a sorcerer still wasn't as easy as we thought it would be because spells require you to stand perfectly still to cast them. -----You might not think that a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that requires actual reflexes and good aim would work quite this well, but TERA seems like it might just make this innovative concept work.

We played a warrior Ė a melee-damage class with a focus on agility and dodging attacks over high defense. The Warner Bros. dude chose a berserker, and would function as the tank. The other three consisted of a slayer, a sorcerer and a priest. As the berserker moved forward, we followed and began swinging wildly with our dual blades. We had a very limited amount of mana Ė about four or five special-attacks worth Ė but would regenerate more every time a blow was struck with a standard melee attack. -----------Now, it's important to remember that TERA, unlike most MMOs, is action-based. You can't target enemies -- you actually have to be facing directly towards them Ė and your hits don't count unless they actually land. The same works in reverse, of course, which meant that in order for us to survive, we had to be quick on our feet and physically dodge as many attacks as possible.

The combat, which we only got a taste of at GDC, is fast, fluid and fun.-----------Combat felt as smooth as it ever has. It's tough to believe that TERA is an MMO in the traditional sense. The game also looks superb; we can't wait to play more. If the team can pull a tight story, interesting character progression options, and balanced classes into the great combat system, TERA could be the MMO to beat next year.

Finally some new news. Apparently they're working on some new skills for the game. A couple brief articles focused on them. The skills are in response to focus group testing feedback (i.e., not enough skills to choose from)

New Warrior SkillTornado Tornado is a chain skill that can be used after an evasive skill. It causes damage in a large 360 degree area around the warrior.

New Slayer Skill Power ArcThis skill hurls a bolt of energy at the enemy as the Slayer swings the greatsword. Used three times in a row, it becomes a combo attack, increasing damage with each blow.

New Archer SkillRain of Arrows This skill rains dozens of arrows down on a large area in front of the player. It takes some time to cast, but itís worth the wait as Rain of Arrows can damage multiple enemies multiple times.

New Mystic Skill Summon Spirit The mystic can summon three kinds of spirits: one to lure enemies, one to attack, and one for support. These spirits guard the mystic and assist in battle.

En Masse Entertainment, a new breed of game publisher specializing in delivering world-class online properties to new audiences, announced new TERA features will be demoed at gamescom 2010 in Cologne, Germany. The En Masse team will showcase a full dungeon crawl for the first time as well as new story details from the game's rich lore, encounters with new creatures and monsters, information about quests, and exposition of group tactics, offering a glimpse at the rich story and gameplay satisfying depth that lurks below TERA's stunning visuals and viscerally satisfying combat experience.

I played TERA extensively at PAX, including getting to sit in on one of the VIP demos. I think TERA has the potential to be a game-changer in the space, though I don't think it will be for everyone (too challenging). I also got to meet a ton of the staff from EME. They're all great people and they all love the game they're making. If anyone has questions, fire away.

I played TERA extensively at PAX, including getting to sit in on one of the VIP demos. I think TERA has the potential to be a game-changer in the space, though I don't think it will be for everyone (too challenging). I also got to meet a ton of the staff from EME. They're all great people and they all love the game they're making. If anyone has questions, fire away.

I played TERA extensively at PAX, including getting to sit in on one of the VIP demos. I think TERA has the potential to be a game-changer in the space, though I don't think it will be for everyone (too challenging). I also got to meet a ton of the staff from EME. They're all great people and they all love the game they're making. If anyone has questions, fire away.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "challenging"?

Don't forget to read some of the links I've posted here. Just watching the videos will answer a lot of questions.

Although it's originally a Korean game, the publisher has funded heavy revamping of the game to make it appeal better in the North American and European markets (or, so they say). It's more challenging in terms of requiring you to make some effort to time your attacks, and your blocking, for example, from what I can tell. Not everybody wants that, so it's something to keep in mind.

My couple questions for Misguided:*How does the combat "feel"? Do you need to spend a lot of time timing attacks and blocks, or is that only on special occasions, or bosses etc.?*Do the character models "clip"? i.e. can two characters walk through each other or is it more like, say, City of Heroes, where the character models are "solid" and can't pass through each other.

Also, to reiterate since I was spreading a lot of disinformation about the pricing early on, it's NOT going to be a free-to-play in North America, according to the latest interviews (it'll be a traditional monthly-fee game). To me, that's going to be the big challenge. Getting people to pay fees for a game that doesn't have a recognizable IP/franchise and doesn't have a marketing giant like Activision-Blizzard, EA, NCSoft etc. behind it.

OTOH, not being an F2P may help prevent players from assuming it's "another Korean grindfest." Though with LOTRO moving to F2P and rumors amuck about other major MMOs turning in that direction, maybe F2P isn't seen as such a negative anymore.

This one features a Lancer, Priest, and Mystic (buff/debuffer) in an instance and shows a decent variety of action ranging from lots of little guys to a boss fight (this boss is actually quite small compared to most I've seen, FYI).

I want to make one thing clear up front. The staff at EME is not simply rebranding or retooling the game for the US market. They are actively involved with the dev group in Korea, and feedback from the focus group tests is being implemented. Also, a lot of the quest content and lore is being generated here or collaboratively with the team in Korea. The process is very different from Aion, where they were more or less handed a finished game and asked to translate it. While I love Aion, I do believe this is a large advantage in TERA's favor.

By "challenging" I'm referring to the very nature of the combat. There is no lock-on or tab targeting (ok, well that's not entirely true, certain spells have a Rez-like ability to select multiple targets, so that's technically a lock-on, but this is not true in general). Enemies have hit-boxes while different weapon types have varying arcs. There are no die rolls for hit detection: weapon arc + hit box = smacko. You want to strike an enemy or heal a friend? They better be in your crosshairs. Also, and I think this is really important when you stop and think about it, there is no such thing as an auto-attack. Every sword swing or energy bolt is an active ability.

That's really just the beginning. Enemies exhibit interesting behaviors and attacks, like jumping back out of range of my archer just as I let go of a big attack I was charging, rolling to the side, etc. Run of the mill elite mobs (not bosses) will exhibit a whole range of attacks (I saw a level 16 mob intended for a group called ...a salamander I think, and it had several melee attacks plus a pounce, a roar, a tail whip, etc). Even generic mobs will have a special attack or two. Creatures have "tells" that come before their attacks/specials. Think of boss mobs from Zelda, they give some hints as to what they are about to do and you'll need to learn them for the tougher critters. I played in a mid-high level (upper 30s) instance on a team of 5, and I can tell you the action was positively frenetic. You've really got to coordinate what's going on. Ventrilo is going to be imperative, lest your warrior and slayer keep dodging away from heals etc.

As an aside there's a comparatively small amount of CC in the game that I've seen. Knockdown seems to be a major damage mitigation factor. Sorcs do get a stun trap early on but it doesn't last a long time. I know there are skills that slow enemies.

Characters can not move through enemies and vice-versa in general, but can with some abilities (e.g. slayer and warrior dodge move both can). This lets a Lancer help protect people behind him. It also lets your slayer dodge through a line of guys forming a wall and use a knock-down ability from behind, as an example.

Every class gets at least one "C" skill (assigned to that key by default) which is some kind of dodge or block. For instance, the sorcerer leaps backward into the screen. The Berserker blocks. The warrior and slayer do a forward roll during which they can pass through enemies and are invulnerable. How often you use those will depend on which skill you have and what you're fighting. Personally, I found the skills that moved you around a lot more fun to use. Every class also has a skill that lets you recover more quickly from being knocked down.

Combat feels...like an action-adventure game. I'm not going to compare it to God of War, but it's closer to that than a typical MMO. I actually think Zelda is a decent comparison. By the way, you can play with a 360 controller, if that tells you anything. Not sure I'd want to, but you can. I don't think you'll spend a lot of time setting up your basic attacks, but using your big moves at the right times and landing them on target can be critical.